Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1893 — BATTLE ON THE CANAL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BATTLE ON THE CANAL.

NEW -'"’AIN AGE DITCH FLOWS WITH BLOOD. Illinois Striker* Precipitate a Riot, and a Sheriff** l’o»se Does Deadly Work with Winchester* White Quarrymen March Against the Blscks. Troops • ..lied Out. Blood was shed at Lemont, 111., on account of the variance between the contractors of the drainage canal and

Ithe men who reIcently struck, deImanding more wages and the discharge of negro laborers. The riot took place on Friday between the Will County Sheriff’s i osse and the | strikers near the camps of Looker,

Harder & Co., in the vicinity of section 10, resulting in the loss of seven lives, and the serious wounding of a' score of others. The names of those killed, all of whom were Poles, are not known, and there are conflicting statements as to the number killed, it being reported that some of the strikers fell into the canal when shot. With a hoarse shout 400 men marched out of Lemont in the mornin# at 11 o’clock down the new drainage canal toward Lockport. They were Poliih strikers. All the morning the forces had been gathering at the saloons and groceries and every hour added to the number. There wa- no recognized leader and the straggling throng, armed with clubs, knives, and revolvers, moved in irregular lines, shouting, singing, and talking. The language used was Polish. The' persons to be driven out by the organized men were the negroes employed by contractors on the rock work of the canal. The white inen have long objected to the colored men who were brought to Chicag > from the South. Protests availed little. Then the strike followed. For three weeks the men have held out, but the contractors have kept their colored help steadily employed. The whites made threats and the contractors declared they would stand by the black men from Alabama, even if Winchesters and Sheriff’s posses were necessary. The first real trouble broke out the latter part of last week, and the Sheriff of Will County and the Sheriff of Cook County were called on

for assistance. Deputies were sent down and placed in charge of other Deputies. For a time the limited force Was sufficient. The idle strikers spent the days in drinking and talking over the trouble until their grievances grew, to their thinking, intolerable; Threats were common and small riots became frequent. When the Sheriff’s men came upon the scene the strikers were aggravated, and declared that they would clean out the officers Of the law and drive away ihe negro labor along the entire length of the drainage canal. It was for this purpose that the motley crowd left Lemont, expecting to meet the Sheriff’s posse at every point On the way down the strikers received reenforcements, and in some instances they stopped and compelled workingmen to join them. Fired on the Striker*. The vanguard of the strikers saw the deputy sheriff and his posse through a gap in the rough wall of Btone and dirt, and word went back. A few minutes later the strikers had taken a position behind the barrier and were ready for action.” The deputies, fllty in number, were all armed with Winchesters, and a dozen of the sheriff’s men were mounted. A puff of smoke from the bank that protected the strikers was followed by the report from a revolver, and a bullet whistled uneasily by the heads of the mounted men. Without waiting for the word of command the deputies returned the fire. At the time a dozen strikers' were hurrying past the break in the wall. Three men pitched headlong into the dust. A shout greeted the volley, and a cloud of stones was hustled over the barricade into the squad of deputies. Several shots also answered the fire of the Winchesters. The striking quarrymen fell back. Their retreat soon became headlong confusion, and they rushed madly up the canal, fearful of the death-dealing bullets.

The van of the flying strikers reached Lemont, and the news of the conflict spread like wildfire. Soon the whole town was out, and express wagons and all sorts of conveyances were taken down to gather up the wounded. All of them live In Lemont During the conflict the deputy sheriffs succeeded in capturing thirty-two of iho strikers. Two of them, who were mortally wounded, dragged themselves into the woods and died there. Several guns and revolvers were captured by the deputies. The sheriffs of Cook and Will Counties, fearing further bloodshed, telegraphed Gov. Altgeld for troops to quell the disturbance, and in response the Governor issued an order for the Second and Third Regiments to proceed immediately to the scene of the trouble and remain there until order was restored.

Currencies Condensed. Offerings to the Pope at his jubilee amounted to $2,000,000. Mbs. Gresham, mother of Secretary Gresham, is critically HL About $14,000,000 of the Northern Pacific loan of $15,000,000 has been subscribed. Evangelist Moody holds revival services at Chicago on Sunday in the Forepaugh circus tent. Worthington Ford, of Brooklyn, has been made chief of the bureau of statistics by Secretary Carlisle. Two new cases of cholera are reported at Toulon, France. Sib Richard Webster,concluded his address before the Bering Sea Court of Arbitration and was followed by C. Robinson, of Canada. The Neidringhaus sheet-iron and tin mills at St. Louis are closed down. Mr. Neidringhaus claims it is because of a scarcity of steel. Osbobn & McMillen’s elevator at Maple Lake, Minn., burned. Twenty thousand bushels of wheat was also consumed. Loss, $25,000. Rewards amounting to $2,500 ar offered for the capture of the Bentonville (Mo.) bank lobbers, and one-haL of.the money recaptured.

NEGRO CAMP.